Challenge your timeline

Every time I set or hear about a project timeline, I’m reminded of Parkinson’s Law which states that work will expand to fill the time allotted for its completion.

Give yourself a week, it’ll take a week.

Give yourself a few days, it’ll take a few days.

There are plenty of valid reasons why we might bake in a buffer into our timelines: it helps account for unexpected hiccups, it keeps us sane, and it’s a good way to ensure that we’re likely to over-deliver rather than under-deliver in terms of timing.

There’s some balance to be struck — extended timelines are valuable for the reasons I just stated. But, exploited too often, and we might find ourselves becoming accustomed to chronically lengthening the duration of every task or project we set out to do to the detriment of long-term progress.

It’s probably a useful exercise to periodically challenge yourself to do something in some fraction of the time you think you need.

If you think you need a week, try to do it in a few days. If you think you need a day, try to do it in a few hours.

There’s a creative, gritty muscle in all of us that can accomplish a lot with a little but we can’t grow it unless we hold ourselves to a higher standard and apply a little pressure from time to time.